Hundreds of jobs at Cincinnati’s Environmental Protection Agency facilities face uncertain futures after EPA leaders announced reorganization plans for the scientific research office.
Michael Ottlinger is president of the National Treasury Employees Union, Chapter 279, representing hundreds of EPA workers in Cincinnati. He says the 1,500 Office of Research and Development staff members nationwide are being encouraged to apply for roughly 500 new positions across different offices.
“Employees are worried about their job because there's no certainty and there's no transparency to how these job opportunities that will be available are going to be awarded,” Ottlinger said.
He says people who move to new positions likely won't continue their current projects. That would halt some research on drinking water and pollution prevention, and leave much of the federal agency's second largest research and development facility empty.
In a video message, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said splitting up research activity into program offices, like the newly created Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions, will “tackle statutory obligations and mission essential functions.”
Zeldin says the reorganization will create $300 million in taxpayer savings by fiscal year 2026 and improve efficiency.
Ottlinger says these moves will hurt independent research at the agency and the scientists doing it.
“It's going to put them in silos,” Ottlinger said. “Rather than being able to share information in the Office of Research and Development, now they're going to be separated from each other.”
He says in Cincinnati, employees are anticipating job cuts, while trying to continue their research into water, pollution, and hazardous waste.
The EPA in March had planned to eliminate the Office of Research and Development and fire up to 1,155 employees, according to documents reviewed by Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology and reported by The New York Times.
“Oddly, employees are trying to go along doing all the things that they would normally be doing, and at the same time, they understand that in a few weeks, they may not have jobs. They may have different jobs. They don't know if the agency has any commitment to the projects that they've been working on. They can't spend money to buy supplies they need currently to do those projects,” Ottlinger said. “So, it's really bizarre.”
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